The So-Called English School of Psychoanalysis

Before entering upon the discussion of the teachings of what is called here the English School of Psychoanalysis, I should like to make a few remarks about the title of this paper. It is not quite justifiable from a certain point of view and therefore apt to be misleading, since what is termed the English School is not identical with the British Psychoanalytic Society as a whole. The justification for this title, however, is based not only on the fact that the representatives of this system call themselves the English School, but also that so far, this group of British members is the only existent representative body of this specific system of thought. The use of the term 'school' is explicable not only in so far as this complex of theories deviates from that of other psychoanalytic groups and promises to do so progressively, but also in regard to the fact that the adherents of them comprise two or three generations of analysts.

It would lead too far afield to discuss here the whole system of thought characteristic of this school. Difference of opinion focuses less on clinical considerations than on theory, on technique, and on fundamental conceptions. Extensive critiques of the technique of this group and of the appraisal of the early development have been written by various authors, from both the clinical and theoretical points of view. This paper will be concerned with the basic conceptions. Though Melanie Klein, the originator of the teachings which later became the main body of thought of the English School of